Happy Birthday Joel!

Not quite, but I think that that’s what Google is moving towards, with it’s new application Google Chrome. Now I’m not normally a techie guy, but I thought the way they introduced the product to the world was pretty cool (see the link above.)

I guarantee you the driving force behind this program is Google’s dissatisfaction with the way current browsers (firefox, ie, etc.) don’t give web apps the same benefits that local apps have. I don’t think it will happen, but Google’s betting that someday iTunes, Word, and maybe even Final Cut Pro will be web apps.

Best News Ever!

kay maybe not quite, but still exciting. The Pixies’ “Doolittle” will be available for Rock Band the week of the 24th. The Whole Album! I had originally planned on getting Guitar Hero when I (eventually) got my 360 but this pretty much swings the pendulum the other way. I can’t imagine any album being more fun in Rock Band than Doolittle. More info here.

In other news, I finished modding my Tobo TV Unit with fans. It’s not much to look at but I figured i’d document my progress nonetheless. The pictures, in all their mediocrity, can be found in my “Cooling a Tobo” Picasa gallery. I think that’s all I’ll do to Tobo, however my AC Adapter has a 1A spec, and the fans and controller only use about 0.4A, so I might put some LED’s in there to light up the drawers when you open them or something like that.

So I’ve been kicking around the new apartment since Sunday all by myself. I’ve comitted to getting everything unpacked and settled before Alli comes back from Cancun (my pennance for being that jobless boyfriend who sits around the house all day eating cheez-its and watching CNBC and CSPAN until June 23rd.) I finally got cable and internet today ($110 a month for basic digital and broadband. Anyone else paying this much?) so I will be posting pictures of my unpacking and apartmenting escapades in the coming days. But to tide you over, heres a video of me assembling Tobo, our new entertainment center. Excuse the poor quality. I was struggling with Adobe Premiere long enough to not care about removing redundant and bad frames and such.

Building a Tobo from Alex C on Vimeo.

So, the video isn’t as clear on Vimeo as I’d like it, so I’ve added subtitles.

May 10th @ 2PM in Bemidji, MN from Alex C on Vimeo.

Short post today. Mostly because it’s contents will make you think I’m crazy/obsessive/creepy.

I’m sure most of you are familiar with my love for XKCD. The author shares my EXACT sense of humor. Sometimes it’s kind of eerie, especially on those occasions where we make similar jokes only weeks apart. Think back to my Jurassic Brunch post, and then check this week’s XKCD out: Forks and Spoons
If you mouse over the image, you see it’s alternate text, which is usually a related joke. To make life easier for you, here it is as well:
“Their biggest mistake was bringing Rachael Ray and Emeril to tour the lab and sign off on the project. That’s when Spielberg caught wind of it.”

A couple of months ago I left the following on a white board in the Computer Science lab:
“O(n) solution to the traveling salesmen problem: Jetpack.”
Which was followed a few weeks later by this XKCD: The Traveling Salesman Problem.

Of course this could all be attributed to the following:
1. Computer scientists aren’t funny.
1a. When a computer scientist is funny, it’s funny to other computer scientists.
2. Computer scientists are almost all exactly alike.
3. The number of possible jokes stemming from advanced topics of computer science are very small.

As some of you may know, I have an older sister who used up all of my parents’ art-DNA when she was born. Christy is about to get her MFA in Metalwork and Jewelry Design from Illinois State University at Bloomington-Normal, and I just went down to visit her and check out her thesis exhibit. Check out Symbiosis, and check out some of the pictures I took of her exhibit after the break.

I also found a number of interesting things on my way to/from Illinois. Pictures of Kitties, Bikers, Furnature, and ‘pf’ words after the break.

(more…)

My creativity is fleeting, but potent.

More after the break:
(more…)

Okay, so heres a list of reasons I actually DO like Bemidji: 1) ALEX DUHHH 2) I can sleep in and hang out and not have to go to work/do anything I want, 3) Alex always has cheezits 4) UNLIMITED FREAKING CABLE. And one of my favorite cable channels is the Discovery Channel. While watching Mythbusters today, we saw this great ad for the DC that we thought we’d share with you! Its really cute!

PS Joel: Alex and I cannot figure out how to add an author… I dont think we have the “post author” section on the the right-hand side of our screen, what gives?

First order of business is for me to shamelessly pimp my Uncle’s website. Rustic Workbench isn’t exactly shambot-style wares, but I thought you all might want to look around, just in case. Plus my Uncle’s story is pretty cool. He graduated from the U of M with a bachelors in Middle Eastern Studies. He and his wife Kay lived and worked in Saudi Arabia as translators for the embassy. After my Uncle got tired of that he got his MBA from Harvard and owned a PIP Printing franchise until he retired about 5 years ago. He then learned how to program and builds websites freelance. He’s currently living in the Maine wilderness, and is spending his time updating the cabin and building the things that he’s selling on his website. His wife Kay has been up to some interesting stuff as of late as well. She performs the ‘ud in various Middle Eastern music productions. They’re really cool people with really interesting lives. Fun stuff.

Also, if you remember the Fire Wire videos I posted a couple weeks ago, it turns out campus security was aware of it, and as a result the newspaper was as well.

Finally, I just wanted to update you on my website project. It’s coming together well, but unfortunately I won’t be able to host it on the public CS server, so you guys won’t be able to see it. Just as well too because we decided not to worry about how it looks, and instead concentrate on how it functions. As a result it’s butt ugly. But I am thinking seriously about developing the site further after I graduate, in which case I’ll get some real hosting for it and might talk to some of you shambers about designing it for keeps.